Sone swa he com on eorthe, So soon he came on earth, Alven hine ivengen. Elves received him. Heo bigolen that child They enchanted that child Mid galdere swith stronge. With magic most strong. Heo zeven him mihte They gave him might To beon best alre cnihton. To be the best of all knights. Heo zeven him an other thing They gave him another thing That he scolde beon riche king. That he should be a rich king. Heo zeven him that thridde They gave him the third That he scolde longe libben. That he should long live. Heo zeven that kin-bern They gave to that kingly child Custen swithe gode. Virtues most good. That he was mete-custi That he was most generous Of alle quike monnen. Of all men alive. This the Alven him zef. This the Elves him gave. vv. 19254: _seq._ If we have made any discovery of importance in the department of romantic literature, it is our identification of Ogier le Danois with the Eddaic Helgi.[383] We have shown among other points of resemblance, that as the Norns were at the birth of the one, so the Fées were at that of the other. With this circumstance Layamon was apparently acquainted, and when he wished to transfer it to Arthur as the Norns were no longer known and the Fees had not yet risen into importance, there only remained for him to employ the Elves, which had not yet acquired tiny dimensions. Hence then we see that the progress was Norns, Elves, Fées, and these last held their place in the subsequent Fairy tales of France and Italy. These potent Elves are still superior to the popular Fairies which we first met with in Chaucer. Yet nothing in the passages in which he speaks of them leads to the inference of his conceiving them to be of a diminutive stature. His notions, indeed, on the subject seem very vague and unsettled; and there is something like a confusion of the Elves and Fairies of Romance, as the following passages will show:-- The Wife of Bathes Tale is evidently a Fairy tale. It thus commences: